Southeast Missouri State College Archives

May 14, 2023

Mother at SEMO 1939 & 1940

A reader was kind enough to drop off a box of old Sagamores a few months ago. I offered to fill in gaps in the collection at the Cape County History Center, but I held back two that had surprising photos in them.

The 1939 issue had photos of Mother as a freshman. It identified her as being from Advance, and being in the Home Economics Club and the YWCA.

Book belonged to Milburn Lavelle Bess

A note in the front of the 1939 book said it belonged to Milburn Lavelle Bess of Cape Girardeau, who was a member of the Band, Orchestra, Pi Mu Omicron and A Cappella.

A number of the pages were autographed by friends who referred to him as Lavelle, instead of Milburn.

I’d be willing to pass the book on the Lavelle or any of his family members.

Albert and Leming Halls

Two of the dorms for women appeared on facing pages. I wasn’t sure if Mother was in either of them.

Mother may have been mistaken

She had two photos in a scrapbook that she labeled as being of Albert Hall, but the yearbook pictures show that Leming is the building with a screened porch.

Even as I consider saying that she was wrong, I’m looking at the sky expecting a bolt of lightning to come down.

She was a sophomore in 1940

She’s still listed as being from Advance, and of being in the Home Economics Club and the YWCA.

Secretary of Home Economics Club

I can’t be sure she’s in the group photo, but the text copy notes that she was secretary of the club.

War Department took notice

Maybe her election to the office of secretary was what caused the War Department to send her this telegram.

When Mother would tell the story, she always said, “I’d rather be married than type.”

Dad and Mother were in a movie theater when the word about the attack on Pearl Harbor broke. When they came out, my grandfather said, “If you kids are going to get married, you’d better do it right away.”

And, they did, exactly one month later, on January 7, 1942.

1940 Aerial photo of SEMO

The front of the 1940 yearbook had a double truck (printing-speak for a two-page layout made up as a single unit) aerial of the area around the college.

It’s amazing how many neighborhood homes have been gobbled up over the intervening years.

Free hospital care

There were interesting little nuggets scattered all though the books. The Medical Staff faculty page showed Dr. O.L. Seabaugh as college physician, and Rose Margaret Dewever, RN, as college nurse.

It said that “beginning with a complete physical examination upon entering school, students are offered competent medical attention through the services of a qualified physician and registered nurse.

“One week’s hospitalization in either of Cape Girardeau’s hospitals and the use of the x-ray are included in advantages offered by the Health Department free to the students on a co-operative basis.”

September 1, 2015

Our Google

I ran across a box of poorly fixed and fading pictures that I must have taken for The Sagamore.

Here a student is using the wireless research application we had available to us at Kent Library. It had a lot of advantages: it didn’t require batteries, power, expensive hubs and routers, rewiring the building, and it never froze up and needed to be rebooted.

In the interest of full disclosure, on a cold day, the USER might be frozen (see below), and, if they made excessive noise, Dr. Snider might boot them from the learning facility.

Exercise a side benefit

You had to trudge to the library through slush and snow in the winter or broiling heat in the summer, uphill both ways.
Once you had determined that there was a reference material you needed, you had to prowl the stacks hoping that nobody had checked the book out before you got to it.
If you were lucky enough to find it, then you’d have to carry a mountain of books back home (up the hill) to do your work.
When done, you’d have to haul the materials back.

July 27, 2015July 29, 2015

SEMO Indian R.I.P.

I was cleaning out the hall closet that held a bunch of newspaper clippings and old school papers this afternoon. In the midst of yellowing newsprint more suitable for confetti than reading, I found this folder from my 1965 freshman orientation.

Poor Chief Sagamore had no idea that he and every vestige of his Indian heritage would be exiled only a few decades later.

Look to your left, look to your right

This was a listing of special events. I must have been taking notes on it so I could perform my duties as The Missourian’s campus correspondence. I drove poor editor jBlue crazy because I was supposed to be covering the school, but I spent as little time as possible on campus. Chasing sirens was a lot more fun.

All I can remember from the Houck Stadium Freshman Welcome was sitting in the bleachers and hearing some guy delivering the old lines, “Look to your left, look to your right. Next [can’t remember if he said “semester” or “year”) one of you won’t be here.

He was right. Two years later, I transferred to Ohio University, a school that wasn’t run like a Charleston high school. If you think I’m exaggerating, check out the Student Handbook.

Songs

In case we felt like breaking into song, a small sheet of appropriate songs was included. I visited the SEMO website to find that the alma mater hasn’t changed (although the current version has another verse. Maybe ours did too, but they thought memorizing TWO verses might be too much for us frosh.).

The four songs contain seven references to “Indians” or “Braves.”

Give Me An “I”

The administration must have thought we more capable of cheering than singing because we were given a list of 13 cheers printed on canary-colored paper.

Give Me an “I” was a call and response where the cheerleaders would yell, “Give me an ‘I,” at which point we were supposed to echo “I” back at them. This was repeated for “N,” “D,” “I,” “A,” “N” and “S.”

To make sure we got it, the cheerleaders would ask, “What does that spell?”

The proper response was “INDIANS!” repeated louder three times.

March 20, 2015

English Prof Gerald Mills

I probably shot English Prof Gerald Mills for The Sagamore. I’m pretty sure he was married to Linda Mills, who worked in the newsroom at The Missourian.

If I’m remembering that correctly, one night they invited me over to meet one of their friends who was a professional magazine freelancer. He wasn’t a big name, but he had some nice photos in his portfolio and was very patient when I kept pulling mediocre photo after mediocre photo from a stack of paper boxes I had brought along.

Difference between a good and bad photographer

Mostly silent through the cascade of crappy images, when he saw the last print come out of the last box, he sighed, looked me in the eye and said, kindly, “The difference between a good photographer and bad photographer is that a good photographer never shows his bad pictures.”

Point made.

I can’t think of his name now, but we stayed in touch for a number of years. He was good about sending me lists of publications looking for stock freelance photos. I don’t think I ever sold anything, but it was good experience to pitch my work.